WOL News Article
RICKY LANNETTI HAS PASSED OUR WAY
By Bill Byham
December 8, 2003 1:00am Williamsport - Ricky Lannetti first gained some football fame at Lycoming College when he ran two punts back for scores down at Delaware Valley as a sophomore. Both were over sixty yards and they came on back to back punting situations for the Aggies in what was turning into a large scoring day for Lycoming.
What we learned about the Father Judge High School athlete that day was that he was competitive no matter who was playing against his team. Lycoming did not need his two scores that day but, by golly, he was going for the end zone on both cases of doing what he had been sent to the field to do - return the punt.
From that time on, Ricky Lannetti had a job on the special teams for the Warriors. Running back the kickoffs and punts and as Lycoming headed into their game with the Bridgewater Eagles, Lannetti had to be a player that the Eagle coaching staff gave extra time to when watching game tapes about his style.
What they saw had to be impressive. Ricky Lannetti had that ³thing² that allowed him to see the whole field, that ³thing² to keep his head and eyes up so he could see the daylight to which he would run.
The stat sheets that Lycoming Sports Information Director Rob Dietrich was prepared to issue to the media covering the D3 South Region championship game showed Lannetti bringing back 26 punts for 273 yards and 18 kickoffs for 392 yards.
Those are not really big numbers but any coach from any team easily recognized that a sloppy approach to stopping Lannetti could cost them. Oddly, Lannetti never ran another punt or kickoff back for a score other than the two dazzlers at Del Valley a couple of season back.
As a defensive back during his high school years, Lannetti came to Lycoming to challenge that side of the ball but his ability to run to daylight, his quick feet, his good hands and his ability to take a hit brought him to the offense where, in his junior and senior season, he put his name in the book as a wide receiver.
Here again the game tapes being studied by Bridgewater were run, rerun and then rerun a few more times just in studying Lannetti. He had hauled in 70 passes for a new single season Lycoming reception record. With those catches he had gained 955 yards with five of those receptions ending up in the end zone.
He was the "go to" guy for Quarterback Phil Mann. He could run the "fly" pattern down the sideline, he could come off a wide out spot on a slant and he could come into the middle and take the hard shots that go with catching passes in traffic.
As Scott Lowery noted. "Lycoming is labeled as a no star team but if there is any player close to stardom on this team it has to be Ricky Lannetti." Last Wednesday I bundled up and attended the Warrior practice just off the end of the Robert Shangraw complex. Football mixed with cold and rapidly approaching darkness as Lycoming worked on its game plan for the Eagles. A look at who was there told me Ricky Lannetti was absent but that really is nothing new at a Warrior work session. Each day players have late classes which are not skipped just because the team was heading into a major post season game.
As the session came down to its end, with Lycoming players coming off the field that was illuminated by Christmas lights from the Lincoln-Packer neighborhood, I asked about Lannetti and others not at the session.
"Ricky was not feeling well," was the short but adequate answer.
It was not until Saturday morning, when the Saturday game was being postponed because of field conditions, that I learned that Ricky Lannetti¹s illness had worsened.
That night the phone rang in my house. I knew when I heard the first word from Ken Sawyer that I was about to hear something I did not want to hear.
"Ricky Lannetti passed away."
Sunday, Ken and I joined others in a somber press box to do our job in covering the Warriors and Eagles play. Bridgewater won it 13-9 to end the Lycoming season but each of us packed our gear to leave knowing that had Ricky Lannetti lived to play it could have ended another way.
"It was what Ricky would have wanted," said team members approached by the media. "We are playing because of him."
After the ball game, a game in which Lycoming worked as hard as ever to win and move on, we could see the reality coming on. Players, mostly seniors who had just played in their last game, held each other, embraced each other in that dual sense of emotion. Losing that ended their football careers and losing a team member they had come to love in a season where the word <team> meant so much
Ricky Lannetti had been there throughout the game. His jersey had been set up on the bench where the offense would meet when coming off the field. His number (19) was taped to the backs of several students and cheerleaders and his number was taped on the Warrior helmets. Two large 19¹s had been tracked in of the visitors side of David Person Field so they could be very visible to the fans seated on the home side.
Can I do this in closing?
Ken said, "Ricky Lannetti passed away."
I want to say, "Ricky Lannetti passed my way. I am better for that."